October 9, 2012 at 07:26A small item fell off Curiosity!
NASA had just announced the successful testing on the Mars rover Curiosity of the CHIMRA instrument, designed to take soil from the surface of Mars, as the news came next - the research mission was suspended!
The CHIMRA device is located on the manipulator, it is equipped with a dirt bucket and a vibrator. The vibrator is necessary in order to facilitate the movement of soil inside the device and to facilitate the delivery of the sample to the internal scientific devices of the rover.
After the operation of the vibrator, the rover's cameras found on the surface an object that, most likely, is not of Martian origin.
Until NASA understands what kind of object it is and where it came from (no one is considering an alien origin of the find), Curiosity will not budge.
Fortunately, the object itself is about a centimeter in size, so it's too early to say that the rover is falling apart. Most likely this will turn out to be a piece of insulating cable winding.
The CHIMRA device is located on the manipulator, it is equipped with a dirt bucket and a vibrator. The vibrator is necessary in order to facilitate the movement of soil inside the device and to facilitate the delivery of the sample to the internal scientific devices of the rover.
After the operation of the vibrator, the rover's cameras found on the surface an object that, most likely, is not of Martian origin.
Until NASA understands what kind of object it is and where it came from (no one is considering an alien origin of the find), Curiosity will not budge.
Fortunately, the object itself is about a centimeter in size, so it's too early to say that the rover is falling apart. Most likely this will turn out to be a piece of insulating cable winding.